Power Level : something between street-level and world class

[Merlyn]

Hello

My girlfriend prefers playing superheroes with a local scale : neighbourhood or a city.

I don't think I will do street-level but I don't think I will want to go world class either.

So how much PP should I give for an average city heroes ? 30 or 35 ? or is street-level suffices for this genre ?


Another questions related. I am a fan of the Paragons Campaign setting for Mutants & Masterminds 2. Which Bash UE's Power Level would covers the "normal people with superpowers" ? (which is a Power Level 6 in M&M2E)

[MrJupiter]

I like to think of 30 Points as the 'City Level' campaign scale, and 35 points as 'National-Class'. While I wouldn't get too hung up on point levels, if your girlfriend is the one that is playing, it might be that 30 character points would probably be closer to what she is interested in, while still satisfying your desire for something a little bit bigger. If her hero turns out to be built with only 25 points, then she will have 5 extra Hero Points to be even more awesome with!

[MrJupiter]

While I've looked through Paragons (a really slick-looking book, BTW), I'm not very familiar with it. In BASH, for a game with somewhat 'normal' heroes, I'd use the Mystery Men campaign scale. That would give them just enough points for some decent stats (level 2 for average), while still letting them buy decent levels for a couple of powers. Even the 'Street Level' scale would be cool for those on the upper level of power.

[Sijo]

My advice is to create (or convert) your characters first. Then use their average value as the default for the campaign.

[Merlyn]

My advice is to create (or convert) your characters first. Then use their average value as the default for the campaign.

there is no character to convert

[Sijo]

My point is that if you are not sure of the Campaign Level at start, you should create your PCs without a point budget; just look at the stuff in the Book and pick what you want for them. Then after you're done, calculate their value and use the average for the Campaign. Assign Hero Points or Setbacks based on that. BASH is meant to allow characters of varying power level in the same Campaign, so Batmen can work together with Supermen.

[Merlyn]

Nice idea.

[Saker]

I built the first Xmen on 15 points each: Nightcrawler, Colossus, Beast, Cyclops, Quicksilver, Iceman, Marvel Girl, Shadowcat, and Angel.

When you fully digest that 1 point in a Ability Score is normal, many heroes can get very cheap.

Cheers!

[BASHMAN]

Personally, I say Street Level but give players 30 points, letting them know the idea is for them to start with extra Hero Points-- but if they want to build up to 30, they can. Actually, I have let people build above that cap as well, and given them Setbacks.

Indeed, I often changed the "Point Value" of the game Issue by Issue; if they were facing some sort of world-class threat, I said "This will be a 40 point game" and awarded starting Hero Points appropriately. That also gave the players a warning that they were likely going to be facing even more dangerous perils in this Issue than those of their "usual" daring exploits!

[MrJupiter]

Hey BASHMAN, the idea of a floating adventure scale is great. I can see a narrator springing an adventure with an underwhelming villain, and seeing them sweat their unexpected Setbacks.